{"id":637641,"date":"2026-04-29T04:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637641\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T04:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:01:09","slug":"melbourne-pharmacy-owner-brutally-assaulted-in-his-own-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637641\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne pharmacy owner brutally assaulted in his own store"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A\ufeff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/melbourne\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Melbourne\">Melbourne<\/a> pharmacy owner has been left with facial injuries after being brutally assaulted in his own store.<\/p>\n<p>Russell Freyman, 65, was approached by a man wearing hi-vis inside his pharmacy on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda about 12.47pm yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>Shocking CCTV footage shows Freyman speaking with the man, shortly before he was punched in the face in an unprovoked attack.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/6cdfd6b8-9000-4c40-b976-80904b795344.jpeg\"   alt=\"Melbourne pharmacy owner brutally assaulted\"\/>Melbourne pharmacy owner Russell Freyman was brutally assaulted in his own store. (Supplied)<\/p>\n<p>He was left bruised, with cuts on his face and broken glasses.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>His unknown attacker left the scene shortly after.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Freyman&#8217;s wife, Charlotte, told 3AW they waited five hours for authorities to arrive after the assault.<\/p>\n<p>She said the couple thought they had &#8220;seen everything&#8221; in the over 35 years\ufeff they have been in business.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/306a2ee3-d384-4782-acd2-933ed176f601.png\"   alt=\"Pharmacy owner assaulted Melbourne\"\/>Freyman was left bruised and with cuts on his face. (Supplied)<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff&#8221;The last 12 to 18 months have just been diabolical and there are zero police,&#8221; Charlotte told 3AW.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;To wait more than five hours after reporting on Triple-Zero an actual assault of a community pharmacist&#8230; and to have followed up with two phone calls directly to St Kilda police to say, &#8216;What&#8217;s going on? How long are we meant to wait?&#8217;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>An investigation into the assault is under way.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Victoria Police said police units were &#8220;tied up with multiple incidents&#8221; including arresting a drug dealer at the time of Freyman&#8217;s assault.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Officers contacted the victim via phone to explain the situation and initiate reports before being able to attend,&#8221; the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Police continue to investigate the incident and are attending the pharmacy today to offer support to the victim.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\ufeff Melbourne pharmacy owner has been left with facial injuries after being brutally assaulted in his own store.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-637641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}